YMCA 57

Hessle 0

(Yorkshire II)

IT might be churlish to describe a 57-0 whitewash as a disappointment!

But if they are being truthful, YMCA coach Damon Scholes and his players would probably admit to being somewhat disappointed by this final home performance of the season against a makeshift Humberside team.

True, they did score nine tries, but against a team forced to fulfil a re-arranged fixture, and made up of vets (some of whom probably retired before the start of the new millennium) and part-timers, then a club record score was probably a more realistic target.

YM’s backs should have had a ‘field day’ and indeed they did cross eight times, but it really should have many, many more.

Top try-scorer Adam Ryder lined up the first on five minutes after a break from centre Alex Shaw, before winger Ryder sent in supporting flanker Sam Hodge. John Smith added the conversion and YM’s ‘try-fest’ was under way.

There was a feeling that every time YM’s three-quarters got the ball in hand it would finish with a try, and had they retained their focus, resisted the in-bred desire to kick possession away, and had some players passed the ball instead of electing to go on their own, then a cricket score would surely have been set.

A great break from scrum half Simon Wilson should have brought the second try, but two passes down the line, the ball went forward. However, it was only a brief respite for Hessle as Ryder opened his own account on 12 minutes when he carved open the visitors’ defence, skinning his opposite number.

Two minutes later, Ryder’s opposite wingman Chris Beever (one player who showed real urgency throughout) got the first of his two scores, one of the day’s best, when quick hands ended with him crossing in the corner.

Try No4 was back down the right flank, Ryder flying down the touchline, and although he was tackled by the full-back, he did manage to pass inside again to the supporting Hodge, while Beever got his second after good work from Shaw and James Swift, and after missing the previous two conversions, Smith added his third conversion to give YM a 31-0 interval lead.

Ryder wrapped up his hat trick with two more touchdowns in the second half, while Gavin Stead got the day’s cheekiest try when he took the ball out of the full-back’s grasp after a Ryder kick and sped away under the sticks, while hooker Stuart Dyke scored the ninth and final try late in the game.

Comprehensive, but far from convincing, and Scholes will surely be demanding greater focus in next week’s season’s finale at Barnsley.

YMCA: Smith; Ryder, Shaw, Stead, Beever, Swift, Wilson (Willans); Sanderson, Dyke (Stu), Sellars, Dyke (Ste), Lyon, Sharrock (van Niekirk), Hodge, Pollock (Leonne-Mazza).